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October 9, 2010

Painted Page

There are lots of places to find How to's, so mine will be just one among thousands or even millions, but hey we all have to start from somewhere. Today, I'm going to do a background paper; its uses can be endless and is only limited by your imagination. I am starting with plain white copy paper, but I don't want it white...

Let's paint it Yellow with acrylic paint. Yes I could use yellow paper if I had any, but I don't.

I want to add some texture, only without making it too rough or bumpy after all I may want to add something that needs a fairly flat surface to adhere to. This is how bubble wrap works for me; I paint on a medium amount of acrylic paint, orange in this case. While it is still wet, yet not running and dripping from the wrap I flip it onto the background. Smooth it just a little with your hand to be sure it makes contact with the paper.

Some bubbles will be heavier than other, if you want to lighten them dab at them with a moist baby wipe or paper towel. Also you may want to be sure you are using the bubble side and not the smoother back side.

I think I want to add some circles. I'm sure I don't have to tell you the many, many different ways to add circles, but for me this time I'm going to use a heavy cardboard tube. I don't remember what was on the tube and it doesn't really matter. I put some acrylic paint on my pallet (a butter bowl lid) and dab the tube into the paint, ever so lightly touch it to a clean space on the pallet to remove excess...lift the tube up to be sure a bubble has not formed on the end then stamp it down on the paper. You can also experiment using any round object or any other shape you like. Remember if the paper curls a bit you can iron it with a warm iron-being careful not to scorch.

What will I use this particular paper for? Who knows, let's see some options are...ATC, journal page, Ancient Chinese Paper Cutting (speaking of have you done this in the 21 Secrets Workshop?) Please leave your link in the comments to share some of your hand designed papers. Special hello to my fellow Workshopers!